Like many of you, I was shell-shocked on Wednesday morning. I went to bed Tuesday night with one expectation and woke up in a bit of confusion and a lot of concern. Over the last couple days, I have spent time listening to God and to people I trust. I am currently convinced that just as in Esther’s day, mischief has been plotted against the people of God, but The Lord has positioned people “For such a time as this”
I am amazed at the way God has put so many pieces together in the last few years, I knew He had a plan for our nation. There are people in various slots of our nation playing significant roles. When, for instance, a great Christian lawyer is needed, there is Jay Sekolu. When I read Mike Lindell’s autobiography, I was fascinated to see how God protected and placed His hand on a wild man, protected and directed him in order to raise him up in our times to subsidize prayer movements and help so many financially. Those are just two of many significant people that we know about.
God is moving! God is at work in our midst.
But today, I feel a deeper certainty in my gut that it is not just “those other folks that people see up on a stage somewhere,”
God has called me out For such a time as this! And guess what else? If you are here God has called YOU out for such a time as this!!
You were created and prepared by the hands of a loving Father to be a voice before His throne and in His kingdom for right now. Maybe like Esther, you have had to be silent for a season, but it is now the time to rise up and stand in the kings court! Read the book of Esther and keep listening to my series on Esther to get a hold of how we will be Esthers in todays world!
This morning the leader of a prayer group I attend said he woke up to a vision/dream of God putting George Washington’s coat on Donald Trump. The coat he referred to was the one George Washington wore at the battle of Monongahela. There, a brave young officer, George Washington road out into battle. Many of the soldiers were panicked, but George fearlessly led the way. He had two horses shot out from under him, but he fought on. When he returned he discovered he had four bullet holes in his jacket and yet was completely unharmed!
This is not a moment to run or hide. This is the time to raise a battle cry! This is the time of the Lions roar! It isn’t even about what the outcome might be! Jesus is my ride or die, people. I will stand for truth and righteousness to the end. It really doesn’t matter how much Twitter and YouTube censor voices. My sister, who is very active on twitter combatting the narrative being forced on us, was blocked from her account today! Clearly, even our small voices are a threat to Satan’s dominion.
But It does not matter if news sources spew propaganda all over us. My eyes are fixed on the one who is Truth! Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.
In 2 Chronicles 20:20 Judah is under attack by an army they cannot defeat without divine intervention! God set them up to be perfectly desperate and without hope EXCEPT in Him! Then as they pray a prophet tells them “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!” God just wanted them to go watch what He would do.
As they head out the next day, with no weapons except songs of praise, King Jehoshaphat declares something we would do well to heed right now: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established. Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper!”
1st: Believe GOD. Read the Word. Know what it says. Know who God is.
2nd: Believe the many great men and women who dwell with God and pray and seek Him. They are all, as with one voice, declaring a word of triumph as we hold our ground and keep praying. Triumph in seeing the end of abortion in America, and a harvest of souls unlike any we have seen before!
Today I want to talk about the importance of time. Simply spending time with God making sure you carve out that time. So I want to touch on that right now. Especially for those who may be rattled by all that has been transpiring in our nation. I mean, we all get rattled by what is happening here and abroad. That’s ok. But what do we do when we feel that way?
You must spend time with God for your soul to have peace. You can listen to all of the wonderful prophetic voices out there who are sharing fascinating and hopeful words. But just listening to human beings will not be enough to bring you peace in this tumultuous season.
I recently heard Mario Murillo, a prophetic evangelist, say “God is waking us up to a new place of dependency on HIM.”
These are the days of getting on your knees opening up your Bible and letting God speak to you! Allow him to speak to your heart. You might need to do that 3-4 times a day! That is OK God loves it when we come to him, and he desires to bring us peace. But it is up to us to take the time that will enable us to come and allow our hearts to be open to the Lord and listen to his voice.
If this election is freaking you out then please… spend more time with God than your iPhone. Listen to HIM! Our hope is not and never was in a president. It is in the Lord. No matter what happens around us that is the most important key to prayer. Even If we lived in a communist country or were persecuted, like some are today in the Middle East, our hope is still in him!! How do you think Christians in such places find their strength?
The morning after the election, I was upset. Stunned. I didn’t know what to think!! Fortunately, I have already carved out my Bible reading time, so before I got sucked into despair I grabbed my Bible. Honestly, it was hard to focus on anything. I just opened it out of habit. Three hours of sleep made me tired and blurry-eyed, but I opened to Daniel 9. I connected to Daniel’s plaintive cry for the nation of Israel. I forced myself to read it all despite the wandering of my tired and shell-shocked mind.
There were a couple of verses I managed to glean strength from. Daniel 9: 2-3 says:
In the first year of Ahasuerus reign (this is the same king who ruled in Esther’s day!) I Daniel, understood by the books (in other words he is reading the Bible and spending time with God when he received this revelation) the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. “
Let me pause there a moment. Daniel is reading his Bible and sees that one of his contemporaries, a prophet… who most of Israel mocked and laughed at in his day, said the Jewish nation would be set free after 70 years in captivity! Those 70 years are now up! Hooray! Does Daniel hold a party? Let’s read on.
Verse 3: “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes…”
Instead of celebrating he is taking the words of the prophet and BECAUSE he believes them to be true, he now uses them as a base for prayer and repentance!
In the New Testament Paul also spoke to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18 Paul wrote “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou mightest by them wage a good warfare.”
This is exactly what Daniel is doing! He takes the prophetic word given by Jeremiah and uses it to wage war! Spiritual warfare.
Daniel does 3 things in his ensuing prayer.
- Repents for the sins of his people
- Reminds God that he is a righteous judge
- Reminds God that they are His chosen people
Listen to verse 19, where Daniel sums up his prayer: “O Lord hear! O Lord Forgive! O Lord hearken and do; delay not for your OWN SAKE, Oh my God; For thy city and thy people are called by THY name!”
Did this prayer honor God? Well… he sent an angel in answer to Daniels prayer, so I sorta think it was!
I would love to dwell just in Chapter 9 of Daniel but my point is, Daniel took God’s Word and the prophet’s words very seriously. He took these words and spent TIME in the presence of the Lord!
After I had my “God time,” I quickly checked my email before heading to work. There, I read was a message from Jeremiah Johnson ministries where he said “We are in a Daniel 9 moment where the future is seen and yet participation is required to see its fulfillment. Whoa! Now I knew God was speaking. Even giving me an assignment to pray as Daniel did.
If I had read Jeremiah Johnson’s email before I opened the Bible myself, it would not have had the impact it did. God used my time with HIM to confirm the message from Jeremiah Johnson.
I know you may be frightened and nervous. The enemy looks large and impenetrable.
I want to encourage you to read 2 Chronicles 20. Pray as Jehoshaphat did when the great multitude beyond the sea came to attack: “For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
Remember, As the people fast and pray.. In other words they didn’t just scurry around like frightened mice. They gathered and spent time in the presence of the Lord! Then a prophet arises and tells them “you don’t need to fight in this battle, just stand and see what God is going to do!” God was saying, “you just wait. You just watch!” God uses prophets to encourage His people. He did it then, and he does it today.
As they head out to meet the enemy with songs of praise as their only weapon Jehosaphat declared: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established. Believe in His prophets, so shall ye prosper!”
Isn’t that exactly what Daniel did?
That will take time! So make the time and let God quiet your troubled Spirit.
As you do this, I would love to hear from you how God speaks to you in your time with Him. Or even, how you may just walk away from that time with renewed conviction He is in control over the affairs of man. There are millions of ways God meets us when we simply give Him time. All of them are equally fascinating and cause us to marvel at His greatness!!
